


Saving Private Katz

by StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese



Series: inspired by TUA season 2 [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Homophobia, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, and your seatbelts, it's klaus's turn y'all, the author is giving the fourth wall the side eye, the drive to Dallas, wear your masks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25775680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese/pseuds/StopIWantToTalkAboutCheese
Summary: Klaus introspection on the way to Dallas.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: inspired by TUA season 2 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860775
Comments: 4
Kudos: 45





	Saving Private Katz

**Author's Note:**

> This has definitely been done before. Here's my take, I guess. :)

So the whole _cult leader_ thing didn’t work out.

Whatever. Klaus had more important things to think about.

Specifically, the love of his life, who, thanks to Five’s little screw up that dumped him and Ben in 1960 after Vanya’s whole blowing-up-the-moon thing, was miraculously alive again.

Hallelujah! Whoever said brothers and sisters never did anything for you?

It was 1963, and hey, war was right around the corner, so all Klaus had to do was find Dave and convince him not to enlist.

Easy peasy.

Whoever said time travel was a moral conundrum? Klaus wasn’t here to step on butterflies, he was here to save the man he loved.

Klaus figured it would be easy to convince Dave. Even though he desperately wanted to, he figured walking up and telling Dave that he was the love of his life wouldn’t go over well. Who reacted well to a total stranger telling them that? Nobody, that was who. Klaus could be subtle when he needed to. Probably. 

No, Klaus decided that he would just tell Dave how he died, to begin with. Using one’s own mortality would hopefully be an effective weapon in convincing them _not_ to go to their death.

Hopefully Dave would listen to him. Hopefully. Only an idiot wouldn’t listen to a traveler from the future. If _Klaus_ had somebody pop in from the future and tell him he was going to die unless he did something… actually, he probably _wouldn’t_ listen, because Five had already tried that. But in Klaus’s defense, Five didn’t have a plan to stop the apocalypse, and Klaus _did_ have a plan to stop Dave from dying, so he liked to think that he was going to be more a credible messenger than his eternally-grumpy brother.

“Where are we even going?” Ben demanded. “Come _on_ , Klaus! You can’t just ignore me!”

 _Oh, yeah? Watch me, Benny Boy_. Klaus opened his window and grinned when the roaring of the wind drowned out his brother’s complaints.

“Seriously?” Ben called over the roar. “Grow up, Klaus.” 

Please. If Ben thought that _that_ would do _anything_ , he had another think coming. Klaus was the master of annoying people, and bonus, he was even better at ignoring ghosts that were yelling at him.

So Klaus just pointed to his ears. “I can’t hear you!” he yelled, and cranked up the radio. _Surfin’ USA_ was playing. Klaus grinned and turned the volume all the way up.

He had already resolved not to be hurt if Dave didn’t immediately fall for him. Love took time, after all, and Klaus was really only planning to save his life. Dave would be… what– twenty-three-ish now? Klaus was thirty-four. It was an age gap, to be sure, but not an impossibly wide one. After all, Dad had had a robot woman that looked decades younger than him. Five had _half of a mannequin_ as a _wife_. Luther and Allison had… ugh. Allison Rumored her husband into loving her. Diego… actually, Diego and that cop lady were all right. Too bad Five hadn’t jumped them a week back in time, Diego could have had the chance that Klaus had now. Vanya dated a literal _serial killer_ that was _way_ too obsessed with her. Klaus and Dave was probably one of the more successful romances of the Umbrella Academy.

Klaus was not worried about convincing Dave not to enlist in the war. It was the sixties, and it was Vietnam. Wasn’t that the war that literally every single student and young adult in America was protesting? Of course, there was the draft, but Klaus had done his research, and he knew that by 1969, Dave would be older than the conscription age for this particular war.

Klaus _was_ a little worried about what Dave’s stance on gay people would be. Klause himself was pansexual, but he doubted the particulars of who he was would matter to an angry closeted man. The Stonewall Riots, of course, wouldn’t happen until 1969, and Klaus was pretty sure gay people were still getting lynched and murdered in 1963.

Positive thoughts!

If Dave was willing to recognize that he loved Klaus in 1968, he probably wasn’t the type to stab Klaus in the gut in some back alley just because he had an excuse in the form of Klaus’s sexuality.

Not for the first time, Klaus mentally thanked whoever his mother was for magically conceiving of him at a time when he could (relatively) safely figure out his identity. And if dear old Dad had never done anything else for him, he had never been particularly homophobic. In fact, he had treated Klaus’s sexuality with the same blank disinterest that he had treated whatever Allison and Luther had had going on with, and Klaus was of the opinion that one of those was a significantly bigger problem than the other.

Of course, it’s not like gay people were getting special hate treatment in the sixties. Nobody was being treated well in 1963. If you were anything other than a rich white man, you were screwed.

Klaus hoped Allison, if she was alive, was okay.

But still, Dallas, 1963, was not the best place to be if you were in the closet.

Klaus’s cult hadn’t cared about that, which was nice. Destiny’s Children was a group that was open to everyone.

Joy.

Klaus drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and watched as the day elapsed, the sun beating down on the car and nearly making his seatbelt frankly unbearable to keep on.

God, seatbelts were something that had taken Klaus by surprise. Apparently, not everybody wore them in the sixties. It almost made him miss 2019, where people wore seatbelts like normal, non-suicidal citizens, and did not refuse to wear something designed only to protect themselves and others. 

Focus. Dave. He had to find Dave.

Klaus knew that he worked at a paint shop– that was where he had made a living before enlisting. He even knew the name and specific location, partly in thanks to the Yellow Pages. Klaus knew where Dave was. He had a plan. He could do this. Hadn’t Klaus already spent half his life talking dear old Dad into things? If he could talk Dad into keeping the liquor cabinet fully stocked when he was sixteen, he could talk Dave into choosing life.

Klaus fingered the dog tags around his neck and focused on the gray road stretching out in front of him, the air visibly shimmering above it.

Dave was going to survive. Klaus would make sure of it, one way or another.

Ignoring the pounding Texas heat and the ghost of his brother grumbling in the passenger seat, Klaus pressed down harder on the gas.

**Author's Note:**

> What did you think?


End file.
